Never Lose Money!

"Rule No.1: Never lose money. Rule No.2: Never forget rule No.1." -
Warren Buffett

A lot can be said for simple advise. I had an uncle that frequently talked about money, and would give simple advice. He said, "Son your income isn't the problem, it's your outgo! If you have one less penny coming in than you have going out, you are in trouble". I love people that can simplify life and business!

Buffet's quote above while practically impossible, is at least a good mindset. I will never understand businesses that simply write off their bad debt without at least trying to recover it. It's like throwing money away with no thought. If you aren't going to at least try to recover the money, why even bother getting a credit application or setting terms?

In speaking with clients and potential clients, I "preach" a lot about having set, clear-cut, policies when it comes to credit and collections. Start with a solid credit application, set clear terms (expectations), and follow through. When your customer doesn't honor your terms and you do nothing, you may as well throw you credit and collection policy out with the invoice that you sent that customer. They are equally useless!

Credit and collections policy can be likened to disciplining your children: If all you do is issue empty threats, sooner or later they are going to learn that you do not mean what you say. You will have nothing but unruly "children" (customers or debtors) on your hand! Your credit policy becomes an empty threat. Set a policy and stick to it!

Which brings me to my ultimate point: we want to be a partof or an extension of your collection policy. Sometimes a/r personnel see us as a threat to their job. Our goal isn't to replace them but to step in and help after they have exhausted their internal efforts, as part of your policy. Once you determine that you have a debtor on your hands (somewhere between 90-120 days past-due), real outside pressure needs to be applied. Put our aggressive yet professional collectors to work for you now, before you lose that money entirely! You have to at least try to never lose money!

Neil's rule #1: At least try not to lose money; Rule #2: If you don't take action, your aren't trying; Rule # 3: If you have as much money as Buffett, retire to your own personal island and give advice about not losing money! Have a GREAT week!

Customer Complaints

As you may or may not know, I am part-owner of a commercial collection agency. Sounds fun, right? Well, just like whatever job, career, business, ball-and-chain, etc. that you have chosen, this presents it's own unique set of "challenges".

To lay a background for anyone reading this that may not know exactly what it is that a commercial collection agency does, we collect from businesses that do not pay their bills. This is completely different from "Joe Blow" down the street that didn't pay for his Yugo. This involves businesses. For example: Business X sells widgets retail to the general public. In order for them to be able to do that, they have to go find a widget manufacturer that will sell to them wholesale so they will have widgets to sell. Either a widget salesman approaches them, or they call the "sales hot line" of said widget manufacturer and agree to buy an amount of widgets. This usually involves a credit application of some sort, agreed upon terms of payment, and a delivery schedule of some sort. For our example let's say they agree on a quantity and a price and are given net30 terms. This means that the manufacturer is shipping them the widgets and the customer has 30 days to pay before interest charges start piling up. If at somewhere between 90 and 180 days, the widgets still aren't paid for, the manufacturer just might call someone like me to help them collect the money that is due. This is different from the "Joe Blow" scenario above in at least two ways: 1) This is a company, not an individual, and; 2) This is unsecured debt (The manufacturer cannot repossess the widgets, it is also likely that they have been resold by now as well).

Enter the commercial collection agency (In this case, Hamilton & Monroe): Our collector makes the first call during which they ask some pretty direct questions in order to determine their side of the situation, while making it clear that at this point we represent the client and have every reason to believe that they are right. After-all we do work for them.

Questions that we might ask at this point:

• Are you aware of the debt and it's age?
• Do you intend to pay voluntarily?
• If not, why? If so, why haven't you paid yet? (The answers to these questions might take the conversation into any number of directions.)
• At what address would your company receive Service of Process, and to whom should it be addressed?
• Can we arrange to have someone pick up payment in full today?

These questions will all be asked in an aggressive yet professional manner, so you can probably already agree that it could be seen as hostile. But, there may be one or more of the following that we already know:

• The customer has lied to our client several times.
• They have received X number of monthly statements in addition to the packing slip and original invoice (sometimes even additional copies of the invoice).
• The person responsible for paying may have been avoiding or dodging the client's calls.
• The mail (statements) may have been returned as undeliverable.
• The phone number may have been changed or even worse - disconnected.

So, what happens? Naturally, the customer is put on the defensive. They weren't expecting our call, so they are shocked. Or, maybe they were and they were "ready for us". Either way, now they are taken aback and they have a couple of things they have to do. First they have to project the blame elsewhere. This is where the excuses start. The widgets weren't shipped on time, they didn't work, they were the wrong color, they arrived damaged, we were charged for 1000, but only received 100.......the list goes on, and on, and on.....!(You get the picture). The second thing they have to do is find a way to get back in your good graces, because you obviously thought they were scum so you sent them to the "bad guys". Now this may not have been what you were thinking, but that may be their perspective. Which brings me to the point of this post (sorry to take so long to get here).

Now they have to call you, make us look like monsters, and get back in your good graces so that they can hopefully stall the process and lie to you about payment for another six months. Do you see where I am going here? We have had every lie that you can imagine told about us, and I am sure every collection agency can say the same. They range from accusations of cursing and swearing, to insulting the customers dead mother and beyond!

There are a couple of things that I want to make you aware of here, and I can't speak for all collection agencies because there are always exceptions, but we hold true to these principles. We are in business, and intend to stay in business, so there are lines that we refuse to cross:

• We will never yell or cuss at a customer of yours.
• We will never insult them personally.
• We will never badger or harass.
• We will remain professional at all times.
• We will not make empty threats.

We do not have the time nor energy (nor do we intend to spend the money that it would take) to defend a lawsuit. There are licenses and accreditations to loose, not to mention the business as a whole. We will not cross the line. Our very livelihood depends on it!

Please remember your customer is on the defensive and running scared because you have decided that it is time to take action. To borrow a well-known line from a well-known movie, "It's not personal, it's business!". It's not personal, and we will never treat it as if it is.

If you don't currently work with a collection agency, your agency is too aggressive (or not aggressive enough), or you would like to just give us a try. Please feel free to contact me, Neil Murray, at (800)313-9611 Ext.103 or neil@hamiltonandmonroe.com.

Thanks!!

Collections in today's economy.

Alright, so it's been a while since I first blogged. Well here we go: I had a client ask yesterday, "What is different today, rather than say, a year ago?" My reply was simple. The biggest difference that we are seing is the speed in which a customer, that seems to be going along fine, just goes out of business and disappears. We have a client, who's customer was buying normally though the middle of Feb, but by the first week of March the phones were disconnected. That's quick! Which brings me to my point. We are having the most success right now for clients that have a structured A/R plan, and stick to it. The "sticking to it" being paramount. Even in today's economy, I have clients for which we have a success rate above 70%. Our rate of success is as much about what our clients do as it is about what we do. I spend a lot of time talking to clients about their plan, because it directly affects our plan. If our client gives a customer a final deadline five times, when we call the debtor will be like "yeah right, we've heard that before". The debtor needs to know that when it comes to payment of your invoices, you mean what you say. If you tell them that the account is going to collections if they don't pay in ten days, then when they don't pay in ten days the account needs to go to collection. It is no different then disciplining your kids! If you tell them they are getting a time out if they don't listen, but they never actually get a time out, your words mean very little!

The bottom line is: Say what you mean, mean what you say. Have a plan and stick to it!